The two governments had agreed to a ministerial level summit, but the North did not want to send an official of appropriate rank provoking the reaction of the South. A morning phone call on the "red line" was not answered. Tensions return to the peninsula.

Seoul (AsiaNews) - The peace meeting between the two Koreas to be held this morning in the South Korean capital's Freedom House has been called off at the last minute due to "irreconcilable positions" over the composition of the delegations that were supposed to discuss the resumption of direct contact between the two governments. Today Pyongyang did not answer the phone on the daily "red line", that was the last contact between the two sides of the Korean peninsula.

Both executives are blaming each other for the cancellation of the meeting, which was to discuss the reopening of the Kaeseong joint industrial complex and the resumption of family reunifications for those separated by the Korean War. According to Seoul, the North did not want to send the leader of the United Front Department of the Workers' Party (who has the rank of minister) as head of its delegation. So Seoul proposed bringing together two deputy ministers, but Pyongyang called the idea "a provocation" and canceled all contact.

According to some analysts, the real problem lies in the fact that within the original North Korean delegation there was no military official: if it had been confirmed, it would have revealed a significant easing of tensions by the Stalinist regime of Kim Jong-un which had been on the point of fomenting war in recent months. They believe that this set off a struggle between factions within the North, which then led to the current situation.

Inter-Korean relations peaked concerns in March, when Pyongyang described joint military exercises between Washington and Seoul (announced a year in advance)  "a provocation and a rehearsal for an attack against us." In addition, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted - even with a Chinese vote -  a series of economic sanctions to punish the third nuclear test conducted by the regime on February 12.

The sanctions and increasingly acute isolation in which North Korea finds itself have destroyed its already fragile economy. Without bilateral relations with Beijing and Seoul, the regime in danger of total collapse because it has no more requests for exports and has no way to import anything from abroad.

 

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